This "virtual newspaper for an aquatic world" contains musings, science, facts and opinions-both profound and mundane-about the River region, its people and natural resources, and their nexus to the Washington, DC scene.
Comments and other written contributions are always appreciated.

Friday, September 5, 2014

Mississippi River Basin Water Resource Weekly News

~Virtual Newspaper for an Aquatic World~

Up Next

Next week, the U.S. House and Senate return from an August hiatus to begin a short September performance before breaking again during the run-up to November's mid-term election. The House is scheduled to be in session through Thursday, October 2, and the Senate will likely follow suit. On the agenda for Congress during that period will be a short-term Continuing Resolution to keep the federal government funded beyond the September 30 end of the current fiscal year. Look for a bipartisan push for a clean (rider-free) measure that will fund the government at least into December. Here is a link to the U.S. House and Senate activities currently scheduled for next week that relate to Mississippi River Basin water resources (As for the week gone by, we've distilled all of the news into this one-paragraph summary: "What We Learned This Week").

Also on the House Menu: Waters of the United States Rule
Earlier in the week, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy named House consideration of of H.R. 5078, the "Waters of the United States Regulatory Overreach Protection Act of 2014," as one of several Republican September legislative priorities. The House Rules Committee will meet on Monday to clear the way for full House consideration of the bill, which would limit the Obama administration's ability to implement rules, policy or guidance redefining the jurisdictional reach of the Clean Water Act.

BP found grossly negligent in Deepwater Horizon disaster; Transocean, Halliburton were each negligent http://ow.ly/B69Qs - ruling could add billions more in fines to the more than $42 billion in charges taken already

Several chronic disasters unfolding around Gulf of Mexico compete with the Deepwater Horizon event http://ow.ly/B83R5

Halliburton settles majority of lawsuits filed against it for Gulf of Mexico 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill for about $1.1 billion http://ow.ly/AZbG1

365 incumbents in the 435-member House;18 of 28 senators on a glide path to a November re-election and another term http://ow.ly/AYDyH

U.S. Rep. VanceMcAllister (R-La-5) held the most August recess town hall meetings (23) of all of his Congressional peers http://ow.ly/B7ZVR

Iowa's US Senate race is worth an extra dash of attention because of ideological distance between the two candidates: Bruce Braley, a Democratic House member, and Joni Ernst, a Republican state senator http://ow.ly/AYXKG

Roll Call refreshes its rankings of the top 10 most vulnerable senators, Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) rises to the top http://ow.ly/AZ1Ez

Women who serve in office continue to be underrepresented at all levels of U.S. government — 20% of U.S. senators are women, as are 18% of House members; at the state level, only 10% of governors and 24% of state legislators are women http://ow.ly/B2cO7